


The Timely Child

by weedle_writes_gay_stuff



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Light Angst, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24830731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weedle_writes_gay_stuff/pseuds/weedle_writes_gay_stuff
Summary: This follows on immediately after the ending of The Timeless Children. Captured by the Judoon, the Doctor has to find a way out of her cell- and her feelings about what she's recently learned about herself.
Kudos: 9





	The Timely Child

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this oneshot about a month ago, but I finally feel up to publishing it. So like a lot of Doctor Who fans, I have some feelings on the Timeless Child revelation and how it was handled, but leaving that aside, I thought it'd be interesting to use the setup for Revolution of the Daleks try and come up with a oneshot that uses this revelation as an opportunity for some character-based angst and shows more impact on the Doctor from the revelations. If people are interested, I might even continue this and kinda write my own version of how I think that story could or should go!

Out of the window of the Judoon prison ship, constellations and galaxies seemed to stretch out ahead of the Doctor as far as the eye could see, the engines causing the ship to drift away from them. Towards what, and how long it would take, she of course had no idea.

Sitting down in her cell, the Doctor sighed and looked around her. Didn’t look like the door had a deadlock seal or anything, so she could probably escape. Might not be a good idea if she didn’t want a member of this Judoon platoon to simply blast her in the face.

Then something hit her. She could just regenerate. She could regenerate as many times as she needed, and they could never kill her, since she was the Timeless Child. So, was she immortal? In a way, she supposed. But in another way, realising that had proven something one of her older selves had believed- that regeneration was death.

Suddenly, being trapped in this Judoon prison ship cell felt a lot nastier. This might be where she died, and someone else got up, took her name and sauntered off. How many times had someone done that in her lives before? How many lives had they led, unsentimental for the Doctors who had died?

An even more unnerving thought came to her. She remembered the vague details of ‘The Division’, the Master’s claim one of her past selves had been a part of it. Obviously she’d known the Time Lords were devious and self-interested, and that she’d been a pawn of theirs in the past, but the idea she might never have been anything but a trained agent acting out Time Lord schemes in her intervention in the universe after all… it sent a chill down her spine.

It was strange how being away from her companions like this- possibly never to see them again- was making her doubt herself. She didn’t know whether Ruth’s assurances that she is who she always thought she was were really true. How did she know people would still have faith in her to do the right thing? How did she have faith in herself to do the right thing? The Master perhaps did something more righteous in destroying the Time Lords, and Ko Sharmus did far more to stop the Master and the Cybermen than her.

And if she doubted even she could still do the right thing, how could she hope to convince anyone she’d go on to meet?

She slumped down to the floor, wondering if there was anything she could do, that was worth doing, given her situation. She wondered if a Judoon guard might come through the door and threaten her or something. Anything to break up the monotony.

None of them came. Lovely.

All of a sudden, though, she noticed a hatch on the wall next to her cell. Digging out her sonic screwdriver, she undid the latch and pulled it upwards to see another prisoner on the other side.

‘Oh! Hello there!’ she said chirpily.

The prisoner looked up curiously. ‘You new in here, then?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, just got caught,’ the Doctor replied nonchalantly. ‘Do you know what you’re in for? I’ve got no idea.’

‘Bounty on my head,’ the prisoner replied. ‘I’ve been on the run through about ten systems, but they found me in the end. Three months have just flown by,’ he added dryly.

‘Gotcha. You tried escaping at all?’ May as well work out how hard getting past the Judoon really is, the Doctor thought to herself.

‘Few times. Last time they warned me if I step out of line once more they’ll just kill me, though,' admitted the prisoner.  
The Doctor bit her lip. ‘What’s your name, by the way?’

‘Hokon. What’s yours?’

‘I’m the Doctor.’

Instantaneously, Hokon’s face lit up. ‘You’re kidding!’ he beamed. The Doctor shook her head, and he couldn’t help but ramble. ‘My luck must be turning round! I’ve been stuck here for ages and all of a sudden, here comes the Doctor! Planets bow down and empires fall to the sound of that name, this dingy Judoon ship hasn’t got a chance! So, what do you-‘

‘Shut up.’ The Doctor cut him off flatly, and looked at the floor. ‘Sorry, just… please never say that kind of stuff about me again.’

‘Of course,’ Hokon answered in a small voice. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s OK, but I… I’m not worthy of any of that.’ The Doctor looked at the floor.

‘What makes you say that? Is all that stuff about you not true?’ asked Hokon.

‘All of it and more,’ the Doctor explained. ‘Much more. So much more that I don’t think I can handle being praised like that anymore.’ Seeing Hokon’s confused look, she clarified, ‘I used to say I was the last of the Time Lords. But technically, I’m both the last and the first of them. I was the first person to have the powers of a Time Lord, and all of them are long dead and gone now. But knowing how much evil they did, and knowing without me they wouldn’t exist… it makes me wish I had never become who I am. The universe never would’ve had the Time War, never would’ve had all the manipulation and empire of Gallifrey, if I hadn’t been taken there in the first place.’

Looking up at Horkon, he seemed startled. ‘Doctor, I’m sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘But if all the stuff about you felling empires and things, if all that’s true, then how are the Time Lords your fault? You’ve done everything in your power to undo the messes they made. If you keep doing that, how are you as bad as them?’

The Doctor paused. ‘I worked for them… before I became who I am now,’ she said, realizing how that didn’t really make sense out loud. ‘And I’ve been trying to fight the bad things they did ever since,’ she admitted.

‘Yeah, so why do you feel like you’re the problem?’ Horkon asked.

Before the Doctor could answer, a blast rocked the ship. Looking out of the window, she saw a familiar fleet of ships, circular and golden, hovering behind the prison ship clearly within her and Horkon’s sight.

For the first time, the Doctor was almost happy to see them in a weird sort of way.

‘I know those ships,’ Horkon whispered fearfully.

The Doctor said simply, ‘Yep.’

Looking at her through the hole, Horkon was confused why her tone suddenly seemed lighter. ‘A-are you excited or something?’

‘Excited, terrified, a whole mix of emotions really,’ the Doctor smirked. ‘I think this was the shot in the arm I needed. ‘Cause whatever happened with the Time Lords in the past, what I do with the Daleks in the present is a no-brainer. C’mon Horkon, we’re breaking out of here!’


End file.
